On Being a Professional Geek

I am Nick Hodge, a Professional Geek for Microsoft - working in Australia. Hence the G'day.

You will find out more about me on my personal blog. For those who want the summarised version: 9 years Apple reseller employee, 3 years at Apple Computer, 8 years at Adobe Systems and 6 months sabbatical.

So, let's get to the FAQs

Why are you working for Microsoft?

I love software, and the software industry. Software exists in an intense competitive feedback cycle, and the best way to make the best software is have the best engineers writing/testing and releasing the code. Not smart enough to code shippable applications myself, I've found that I can listen and communicate with the software users. Thankfully, Microsoft has many other smarter people who can write code. There are many, many smart people at Microsoft.

The breadth of Microsoft's technology is amazing. The numbers of products/technologies, and the history of each product is gob smackingly broad. I still keep finding new things daily.

Logically, Microsoft is the place you arrive when you love software. I still use a Mac (MacOS X 10.4, Parallels, MacBook Pro 15") at home; our home server is presently a reclaimed Dell running as Debian Linux box; and Adobe software is launched on my Toshiba running Vista, daily.

So joining the two does clearly define what I do, and more importantly my life ethos. A geek to my genes (and geek genes are inheritable), anything that is technical tickles me. I also love showing off this to other people: geeks or not. Professional, as I am paid by Microsoft to do this job - much to the envy of my friends.

The job code doesn't formally exist on paper or in the Microsoft organisation chart - that's another reason I love the title. Sorry, HR.

Why is this blog called "The Geek Stories"?

Microsoft has plenty of places where Microsoft's employees tell their stories. Channel 9, the formal http://www.microsoft.com/ web site. What about average users like you and I? The idea behind "The Geek Stories" is to capture these stories and publish them to the world.

Everyone has a story, and we all have at least one geek story to tell.

So, hang around and comment and contact me at your will. My ears are open.

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